Leonard Thomas Ashton Bates (20 March 1895 – 11 March 1971) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler who played for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. Born in the pavilion at

Edgbaston Cricket Ground Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club and its T20 team Birmingham Bears. Edgbaston has ...

where his father, John, was head groundsman,Wisden 1972 – Obituaries

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

, Retrieved on 8 November 2008 Bates would go on play 200 first-class matches at the ground scoring over 8,000 runs. In total Bates represented his county 441 times between 1913 and 1935, he also made two appearances for 'The Rest' against England in 1927 and once for the Players against Gentlemen in 1925. Bates scored a total of 19,380 first-class runs at an average of 27.84, passing 1,000 runs in a season 12 times and three times passing 1,500. He scored 21 centuries, two coming against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

at Coventry in 1927, his highest was a score of 211 against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

in 1932.Gloucestershire v Warwickshire, County Championship 1932
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 8 November 2008 After retiring as a player in 1935, he fulfilled the role of coach and head groundsman at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

until 1963. He died at

Coldwaltham Coldwaltham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is divided in two by the A29 road and lies 2.4 miles (3.9 km) southwest of Pulborough which has both a railway station on the Arun Valley Line ...

following a long and debilitating illness in which both his legs were amputated.

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Leonard 1895 births 1971 deaths English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Players cricketers People from Edgbaston English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 People from Coldwaltham